The eldest son of John Thorpe and his wife Ann, sister and coheiress of Oliver Combridge of Newhouse, Kent, he was born at his father's house of Newhouse in the parish of Penshurst, Kent, on 12 March 1682; his father had an estate in the parishes of Penshurst, Lamberhurst, Tonbridge, and Chiddingstone.

He was sent to Westerham grammar school, where the master was Thomas Manningham, and on 14 April 1698 matriculated at University College, Oxford, graduating B.A.

[1] Thorpe was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 30 November 1705, and at that time lived in Ormond Street, London, near his friend Richard Mead, the physician.

He had supported Thomas Hearne, Browne Willis and other scholars, and gave medical aid to many of the poor in his district.

He edited the Itinera Alpina Tria of Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, and published a sheet of lands contributory to, and a collection of statutes related to, Rochester bridge.